Post-Game Quotes: Oakland

On the team's play in the second half…
I thought our kids did a really good job in the second half. I think the first half, we kind of shot ourselves in the foot a little bit. Give Oakland credit, I thought they had good defensive plays that caused some turnovers. We were a little too casual with the ball. We had 13 turnovers in the first half and when you look at our stats, that's not something we've been doing too much of, turning the ball over and really taking care of it, so that was a little uncharacteristic. But the second half, we had a lot more possessions due to the fact that didn't turn it over so much and obviously that resulted in, I think, a really aggressive third quarter. We shot 92 percent in that quarter and 31 points in the second half. So a little bit of a slow start, but ended up really, really strong.

On the debuts of the Penn State transfers
That was a little bit of a tick tock situation. I appreciate the Big Ten putting that on the agenda this morning, or if it was on there they at least made it. They knew we had a noon tip and some other some other games are being played, especially on the women's side. There's a handful of those that have inter-conference transfers. So you know, we've been waiting patiently. To be honest, Kevin Warren was really, really great and I had a nice conversation with him. He and I talked, he was aware of it, and it was championship football weekend. He reached out to me Sunday night after our game and said they were going to look into some things and make sure that, it was very important because they recognize this is a student-athlete welfare issue. These kids want to play, in the spirit of the rule, but they needed to look at it. I thought our compliance people here at Michigan State did a really good job of getting everything ready to go.

But once they cleared it this morning, the Big Ten had a meeting this morning at 9, and we got the go ahead a little after 10, it was like 10:15, we still had one more process here at Michigan State. You have to certify a student-athlete, that they're actually in courses, we have to certify them here. So our compliance people had our registrar on standby, ready to go. I was giving the pregame talk and I think there were 28 minutes left on the clock before tip when they gave us the go-ahead. In came them with their uniforms and away they went. It was that close to tip-off. I appreciate them getting an opportunity before Christmas to just get the rust off and play in a game here versus just having to go into a Big Ten after Christmas.

On playing without Nia in the second quarter…
I think every coach this year probably is trying to go into play more people, just due to the fact that the pandemic is going on and you never know who you're going to have night in and night out and what can we do to continue to move forward and give the people experience that they need. That first half was tough because she (Nia) sat next to us, not by choice, it's because she was in foul trouble. I really did like the fact that she was a big spark coming out. Things kind of start with Nia, she's a really good player. In 14 minutes, in 14 minutes, that kid was our leading scorer. I really look at her as just the catalyst. At the same time as an opportunity for other kids to step up and play because you don't know what you're gonna face after the holidays, you don't know if you're gonna have kids out, you don't what you'll have in January, February, if at all, but we want to be prepared and ready in case that happens, so the more kids that we can play the better. And in a game like that, that's an opportunity to do that.

On getting a big win….
We need one like this to be honest, I think they all need it, it's been hard. It's just hard to explain and articulate to people that don't kind of live this life of what we're trying to do with these kids here and just the challenges that they face every day. I mean, they've been here since the summer and many of them haven't seen their parents. So it's been a long haul for them I think physically and mentally.

Everything's online, virtual, very disconnected. It's just completely, it's just hard to get a grasp sometimes and I think they were ready. This game made me a little bit nervous just because it was three games in five days, but also it's the last one before the holidays and sometimes kids can tend to... and I wouldn't blame them, I mean, it's been a handful I mean these last handful of months have been tough. I'm really proud of them and maybe some of that depth helps. They get along really well, we've got great team chemistry. We're gonna take this one, put a smile on our face, go take a little break mental break for three days and get back at it again.

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